Teaser

I just saw something neat on the internet. Thanks old friend.

SO - when I was at harding, there was this lil "club" of us who at some point decided that living at the music building every night was a desirable thing to do. Many reasons for this, for one, now all of a sudden we had a group to belong to within major that didn't allow us to do much else. (I'm not asking for pity, I wouldn't change that for the world) For 2 - being at the music building among those people allowed me to practice, cause they were practicing. And it was in a relaxed environment that didn't make you feel isolated from the rest of the world. For 3...well...friends and practice. And it was like our little place to be.

When I moved to memphis, I didn't realize how important that was to me. I had good friends in memphis, but no one that just inspired me to practice, no one who's energy and determination I could leach off of, which was fine, because at that point I learned to practice on my own. Now - as I read that, it just sounds like I have no self-sustaining drive. And to a point that is true, I'll be the first to admit that if there are other people around that practice, I practice.

So enter the Rutgers Period a few years later (present), I'm talking to a friend who is almost finished here, and I say," Hey Smiles McGuillicutty (that's not his name...but we'll say it is), how much do you practice?" Now smiles is a VERY accomplished player, and makes a great living freelancing in NYC doing alot of what I would like to do. He said to me,"Not much...just like 3 hours a day." As Scott broke it down for me last night, Smiles practices 1/8th of his entire day, everyday, and that's including sleep time. We'll say - 1/5th of his day is spent practicing. at THIS POINT I realize, it's time to get my butt in gear. So I say," Tough balls - get in the practice room and practice even if you don't know anyone else who is practicing." So I do.

Anthony Williams is a DMA trombonist at Memphis right now, and a general Bad-A trombonist, and he told me about his routine at UNI where he would get up and get into the practice room early in the morning for a good 3 hours and get it all in, a good "workout" if you will. So I thought I would try that, half the time Ashley gets up to go to work by 6:30 anyways, why not go to school and put in some good time?!

Lo and behold. I found a group of people who like to get to the practice room early, and practice like crazy. Meet Mika, Todd, Greg, and Sam (sam is usually in the other building, but she's ALWAYS there...I can count on that)

I'm excited. I live for this stuff!